When It’s Hard to be Grateful

It was a rough summer for me. Between a 24/7 noise issue with a neighbor, feeling severely burned out with work and ongoing food sensitivity issues, I had been feeling overwhelmed and fatigued.

This week, I opened my gratitude journal. I noticed that my last entry was a full month ago. I pride myself on doing my gratitude journal almost every day, and seeing this took me aback. Had I really been that distracted?

We all hit times when it is hard to feel grateful. It’s hard for me to be grateful for anything when I’m in a standoff war with the neighbors about constant noise over my bedroom and haven’t slept in four days.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t written at all in that last month. I journaled frequently to clear my head. In fact, I had journaled more than usual this past summer. Then I realized why.

I couldn’t focus on gratitude until I acknowledged what was blocking it first.

This past summer, I had often journaled about what I was feeling. But, I was careful with this. I made sure I didn’t write things like, “I am so burned out” or “I am so mad”. I knew that any statement starting with “I am” is an affirmation to the universe – it has the power to create and confirm your reality. When you say, “I am…” you are basically creating a self-fulfilling prophecy – which can be great or awful depending on how you finish that sentence.

I was mindful to write statements that focused on the emotion I was experiencing. I wrote things like, “I am feeling so overwhelmed…” and “I feel taken for granted… “.

I wrote and wrote and wrote until I felt that I had exhausted the emotion – and then I shifted focus.

Only then could I write about what I wanted to experience moving forward, and the things I was grateful for. I even wrote about things that I will be grateful for – once they happen (I write about them as if they had already occurred). It’s one method of manifesting exactly what you want before it happens.

I love the concept of gratitude, but I recognize that we always have to honor our emotions first. Honor, acknowledge and accept what you are feeling, and give yourself permission to vent. Be raw, uncensored and honest. Allow your emotions to have a voice.

Once the emotions are fully and authentically expressed, purged and cleared, the energy will shift. And then you’ll find it a bit easier to find those golden nuggets of gratitude in your world again.